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Severus Snape
Severus Snape comes from the YA book series Harry Potter. Spoilers abound! He arrives directly from Dumbledore's office, after a very important conversation in November 1981. Background Tobias Snape never loved Eileen Prince. He hardly tolerated her, but she was a warm body to be with in the night, and that was really all that he was ever concerned with. He had no silly notions of love or marriage in his head, until Eileen tearfully knocked on his door one night and told him that she was bearing his child. The small town that Tobias and Eileen lived in would make life miserable for a woman who gave birth to a child out of wedlock, so the two married, and not six months later, Severus Snape was born. Severus has always tried to escape his past. Upon his birth, he was immediately catapulted into a world of squalor, of screaming and yelling, and of darkness. Tobias did not take kindly to his freakish witch wife and their equally freakish offspring and largely ignored the two, save for moments when he needed to yell or accost his so-called family for even the most trivial of reasons. He spent as much time as possible away from the small flat the trio called home, usually at the pubs or with other women. Eileen, barely nineteen years old and friendless, had nowhere to turn, no one to protect her and her son, so she stayed with Tobias. She raised her son with the knowledge that he needed to be part of something, needed to be important, needed to be respected and looked up to and perhaps even feared. She wanted Severus to be able to rise above his humble beginnings, so she saved her money from the odd jobs she worked around town to be able to buy books for Severus. He attended a free public school, which was dingy and of rather poor quality. Much of Severus' acquired knowledge was inspired by the mere presence of Tobias in his life. Eileen, determined to teach her son to protect himself at all costs, taught her son more curses, hexes, and jinxes than the average little boy would ever need to know. Once at Hogwarts, he rose to be one of the top students in his year, which were frequently marred by the meddling of those pesky Marauders who seemed to always be trying to kill him. While in school, Severus fell in with a group of fellow Slytherins who were purebloods, and who devotedly followed Lord Voldemort. Severus, recalling his horrible Muggle father, was quite taken with the ideals of cleansing the wizarding world, of keeping Muggles out. He, of course, hid his status as a half-blood, and was quickly welcomed into the fold, so to speak. But despite his mother's determination to protect him, to teach him, and to love him, she could never really teach him how to fit in. She'd never fit in herself, after all, and with Eileen as his only role model, Severus didn't have much hope for ever truly finding acceptance with others. But there was something that kept him sane, growing up in his little heap of a house, with his absent father and his lunatic mother: There was a girl. And the girl was pretty, and kind, and -- best of all -- she was special. She was like him. He'd watched her, watched her for a long time. When he was older, when it was all over, he realised how stupid he'd been, how utterly creepy and terrifying and ill-thought-out the whole thing had been, from start to finish. But when he was just a little boy, all he knew was that there was a beautiful girl with hair the colour of flames and eyes the colour of grass and freedom, swinging higher from a swing than any Muggle ever had the right to. To him, Lily Evans was perfect. And once she believed his fumbling talks about magic and wizards and Hogwarts, he had a friend. He'd never had a friend before her, and for a while, they were practically inseparable. Unlike most other people, she could look past his mismatched clothes, his unkempt appearance, his desire for knowledge and power and success. And Severus? He thought she was amazing. Lily's new home in Gryffindor, her association with James Potter and Sirius Black, the fact that she was the most coveted girl in all of Hogwarts -- none of this could diminish her in his eyes. Though their paths were different -- Lily, the golden girl of Gryffindor, the best, the brightest, the purest; Severus, the dark and brooding Slytherin, falling in with a group of pureblooded boys destined to become Death Eaters -- they stuck together, an unlikely duo. She was beautiful, she was talented, and sometimes, just sometimes, he could delude himself into thinking that she was all his. Until one day: Severus' very worst day, in his estimation. It was typical Black-and-Potter double teaming, it was typical torture and harassment for no reason other than because they were bored. But before he knew it, Lily intervened and he snapped, and he said it, he called her a Mudblood, and then that was it. Over. Years and years of friendship, of sharing secrets, of wishes and hopes and dreams, thrown away because of one stupid word, because he'd used up all of his last chances. And so there was nothing else for him to do but throw himself whole-heartedly into Slytherin, into the Dark Lord's movement. He would do well there. They understood him, his housemates, maybe even more than Lily did. Immediately after finishing his studies at Hogwarts, he was taken under the wing of long-time 'friend' Lucius Malfoy, who ended up convincing Severus that he was better off without the abusive father and the dreadful little family home, and that wouldn't he much rather join a revolution against the wizarding world as a whole? Severus, who'd had enough of his family, and who rather agreed with the whole purebloods-are-better-than-you sentiment that the Dark Lord espoused, did his best to bury his own status as a half-blood just as he buried so much else that just didn't fit, and signed himself right up for an extended tour with the ultimate evil. After spending a few years brewing potions for what was generally viewed to be the most evil being on the face of the planet, something snapped inside of him. There was no point to what he was doing, he was sure of it. He was disillusioned by his "colleagues," who seemed to be involved with the Dark Lord for all of the wrong reasons. He felt that his potions were being wasted on imbeciles and worthless Muggles, and he really would just rather go now, thank you very much. And worst of all, which perhaps made him selfish or mad or desperate, he realised that one simple message, just one little prophecy relayed to Voldemort, had effectively sealed the fate of Lily Evans. He overheard -- and was caught red-handed in the process -- the prophecy that would, of course, change the wizarding world as everyone knew it. Knowing that he was the one ultimately responsible for causing the death of Lily Evans (not Potter, never Potter) sealed his reluctance to associate with the Death Eaters any longer. Severus took his message, his guilt, his shame, to the only person left alive who had ever believed in him -- Albus Dumbledore -- and begged for Lily (okay, the Potters, all of them, fine just please, please save her) to be protected. He offered Dumbledore anything, anything, just to save her. What he offered ended up costing him all he had, at the end of it all. But it was too late; the Dark Lord killed her, and though all that appeared to be left was a miraculous little baby and a lot of bad memories, Dumbledore was convinced that the Dark Lord would return. Severus had no choice but to remain at Hogwarts, to teach, to be loyal to Dumbledore, and to walk the precarious line between good and evil. He was tested again and again, and he gave all that he had, just because of one pretty little girl who was the best at everything, who was the oldest, dearest friend he'd had, and whose death was entirely his fault. Personality Severus has no respect for anyone who cannot understand him, quite simply. He is bitter, and angry, and exhausted. Severus would, at times, rather curl up and sleep for eternity rather than deal with the turmoil that everyday life seems to be bringing him as of late. He is the perfect example of politeness and refinement when in the presence of many fellow Slytherins, Death Eaters, or people he knows that he must impress, but is a downright bastard when dealing with anyone he sees as beneath him. He knows what he wants, and knows how to get it. He has a rather dour, depressed streak in him, and is prone to simply exist in silence rather than seek out anyone to help him. The first impression one gets of Severus isn't vastly different than the impression one would get after knowing him for a while. Snape is a classic introvert, and is incredibly paranoid, to the point where he suspects everyone of being against him (which, sadly, they most often are). He is arrogant to a fault, and usually seems to forget that other people have valid opinions and experiences, too. He likes academics in general, doing research, experimenting with potions, and proving that he is, indeed, superior to all others. Severus likes the colour black, solitude, the satisfaction of a job well done, sophistication, and anyone who understands him. He is compulsively tidy; he takes great care to make sure that none of his belongings are ever misplaced or disturbed. He generally dislikes people who he finds to be incompetent, particularly at potions. He dislikes noise, bright lights, the colour pink, the outdoors, anything involving strenuous physical activity, garish decorating schemes, bugs, heights, stairs, enclosed spaces, and people who assume things about him. Inventory Upon Arrival * One black button-down shirt * One black undershirt * One black vest * One black and silver necktie * One pair of cufflinks, silver * One pair of black trousers * One black leather belt * One pair of black socks * One pair of black boots * One pair of underwear, black * One black topcoat * One heavy cloak, black, with many pockets, containing: ** One completely useless wand ** Two galleons, seven sickles, eight knuts ** Ten pounds, fifty-five pence ** One bezoar ** One pack of cigarettes, one missing ** One book of matches, one missing In Canyon Ridge * For Christmas 2008, Severus received the Harry Potter books. If he didn't dislike the concept of burning books, he would have gladly set fire to the damn things before even reading them. Snape, Severus Snape, Severus Snape, Severus